ULTIMATE RESCUE HELICOPTER
Many thanks OD for your answer to my query. It would seem from what you say that the MOD interpretation to that R/T call is open to question at least. Any other input from helio aircrew would be appreciated re the Playmate appellation. Apologies OP for the thread drift, but as the phrase was used I felt the opportunity was too good to miss.
Your comment about the Sea King/Herc accident
JTO, thanks for the clarification. It was worth checking out as my recollection (from many many moons ago!) rather accords with your account. Times change though and there was a possibility that the c/s had a special significance for helios and/or Naval Ops. Seems not so, nothing to see here, move along please, we've all got homes to go to...
Once again apologies OP. Hope you got what you were after in spite of the severe drift.
Once again apologies OP. Hope you got what you were after in spite of the severe drift.
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SeaKing The greatest
I always understood that the SeaKing was specifically designed as a rescue helicopter by Sikorski, so to beat it don't you need another purpose built SAR helicopter? But then we probably can't afford that, but we probably could buy some surplus CH53s from the US that would do the job. Oh well. 
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The Sikorsky Sea King was not designed primarily as an SAR helicopter:
"The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King (company designation S-61) is a twin-engined anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter. It was a landmark design, being the first ASW helicopter to take advantage of turboshaft engines, as well as being the first amphibious helicopter in the world.[2] Introduced in 1961, it served with the United States Navy, and remains in service in many countries around the world. The Sea King has been built under license in Italy and Japan, and in the United Kingdom as the Westland Sea King. The major civil versions are the S-61L and S-61N."
Used for SAR as a secondary role in most Services using it as an ASW platform (eg. UK RN), and then later by some nations (UK RAF & RNoAF) as a primary SAR platform, the SK has for decades established an excellent reputation for providing "all weather" 24/7 SAR capability.
However, its time is increasingly fading as whatever its operational capability, it does not meet modern safety standards and its old design demands expensive engineering and manhour costs.
That said, its going to be around somewhere for many years yet!
"The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King (company designation S-61) is a twin-engined anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter. It was a landmark design, being the first ASW helicopter to take advantage of turboshaft engines, as well as being the first amphibious helicopter in the world.[2] Introduced in 1961, it served with the United States Navy, and remains in service in many countries around the world. The Sea King has been built under license in Italy and Japan, and in the United Kingdom as the Westland Sea King. The major civil versions are the S-61L and S-61N."
Used for SAR as a secondary role in most Services using it as an ASW platform (eg. UK RN), and then later by some nations (UK RAF & RNoAF) as a primary SAR platform, the SK has for decades established an excellent reputation for providing "all weather" 24/7 SAR capability.
However, its time is increasingly fading as whatever its operational capability, it does not meet modern safety standards and its old design demands expensive engineering and manhour costs.
That said, its going to be around somewhere for many years yet!
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Another "S" model is clearly the best
As an avid fan of the venerable H-3 and with a few rescues under my belt in them, I can only say that most comments about it being a bit (alot!) outdated are certainly valid. In fact, for effectiveness, the Sikorsky "Hawk" family SH-60B, SH-60F, HH-60J, etc are excellent platforms with better speed, reliability and range, not to mention better nav systems and crisper auto-approach/hover systems. However - one aircraft that surpasses them all is not primarily - or even secondarily or tertiarily a rescue platform. Its the 53E which has never really done any rescues but is immensely capable with an obviously awesome cabin (enough for mass rescues or a full hospital clinic for small #s of rescuees), superb speed (150-170 kts), excellent IFR and auto-approach/auto-hover systems and long (MH-53E has 22,000+ lbs of fuel plus unlimited range with air-refueling enroute. The single rescue hoist (winch for the rest of the world) could be augmented with 1-2 aft ramp winches (hoists for you yanks) for redundancy. And the rescue capability of the 53E series is proven in training/demo operations. With the 53K coming, who knows what's possible but it would eclipse most anything else...
